Welcome to Texas justice: You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Kleberg jail 1/4 empty, still overcrowded

How can a county have a jail overcrowding problem with 1/4 of capacity vacant? By failing to properly staff occupied parts of the facility.

The Kleberg County jail is designed to hold 120 inmates, though it currently only houses 93. Even so, the county must send inmates to stay at other county jails because of understaffing. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards has threatened to shut down the jail if the problem continues, reports KRIS-TV. In response:

The [Kleberg commissioners] court debated on reducing the cost of running the jail and considered expanding programs like probation and community supervision to get prisoners out of jail sooner.

Commissioner Romeo Lomas said that speeding up the legal process for offenders will lower the number of inmates. He also said some prisoners spend months in jail waiting for their court appointed attorneys.

"Those attorneys like to walk the halls over there and get appointed, and they get paid, but they're not doing what they're supposed to do," Lomas said.

These snippets from the commissioners' discussion tell me Kleberg has barely scratched the surface looking for solutions to its jail overcrowding problem. Indeed, it sounds like officials only now are beginning to ask the right questions.

Another solution might be to stop arresting as many people for low-level, non-violent offenses in the first place. Other counties are preparing now to implement a new law that takes effect Sept. 1 allowing police to give citations instead of arresting offenders for certain low-level offenses. That ought to provide significant relief.

It's easy to be "tough on crime" when somebody else has to pay the bills. But running jails and prisons is an expensive proposition, and like so many other counties and the state itself, Kleberg officials are learning that at some point you must also be smart on crime, or else suck up and tell voters you must raise their taxes. Those interested in better options might start by perusing ideas other Texas counties have tried, recounted in these prior Grits posts:

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I don't know how understaffed the Kleberg county jail is but let's suppose that the 27 empty beds is all they export to other counties. At $40 a day (conservative estimate) to house offenders outside the county, that comes to $259,000 a year. With staffing mandated by the commission at 1:48, they can't hire enough officers to man this place? Unbelievable.

Someone should tell these County Court Commissioners that it is not a rise in crime but an increase in the activities that defined as "criminal".

The real crime is that the leadership has not taken the time to educate themselves. Criminal Justice costs in other counties are over 25% of the budget. It is the Commissioners job to know what is going on and how much it costs. It is their job to make sure tax moeny is spent in the best, most effecient way possible.

You know what a MAJOR Kleberg County Sheriff's department problem is? I know first hand, I was a deputy there from 2005 til 2007, at one point there were only 3 unranked patrol deputies and 5 patrol sergeants, this doesnt include the other "brass" just walking the halls during the day. Everyone gets paid there, Everyone has stripes. There are nothing but EGOS within the Sheriff's department. The Sheriff's department having "high call volume?" Come on, working for a city and a sheriff's department are two different things, if you call "running around behind LT. Longoria" all day busy, then I guess they are. Take some brass out of there, bring those egos down just a tad, there are good officers within the department believe it or not, let them show the ideas they have!

GfB Writer Bios

Subscribe by email

Support Grits via Donation

Donate to Grits via PayPal. Grits is a hobby, but donations help cover newspaper subscriptions, periodic travel, open records fees, etc.. Donate if you can! When I have resources, the blog can do more stuff!

"I always tell people interested in these issues that your blog is the most important news source, and have had high-ranking corrections officials tell me they read it regularly."

- Scott Medlock, Texas Civil Rights Project

"a helluva blog"

- Solomon Moore, NY Times criminal justice correspondent

"Congrats on building one of the most read and important blogs on a specific policy area that I've ever seen"

- Donald Lee, Texas Conference of Urban Counties

GFB "is a fact-packed, trustworthy reporter of the weirdness that makes up corrections and criminal law in the Lone Star State" and has "shown more naked emperors than Hans Christian Andersen ever did."

-Attorney Bob Mabry, Conroe

"Grits really shows the potential of a single-state focused criminal law blog"

- Corey Yung, Sex Crimes Blog

"I regard Grits for Breakfast as one of the most welcome and helpful vehicles we elected officials have for understanding the problems and their solutions."

Tommy Adkisson,Bexar County Commissioner

"dude really has a pragmatic approach to crime fighting, almost like he’s some kind of statistics superhero"

- Rob Patterson, The Austin Post"Scott Henson's 'Grits for Breakfast' is one of the most insightful blogs on criminal justice issues in Texas."

- Texas Public Policy Foundation

"Nobody does it better or works harder getting it right"

David Jennings, aka "Big Jolly"

"I appreciate the fact that you obviously try to see both sides of an issue, regardless of which side you end up supporting."

Kim Vickers,Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and EducationGrits for Breakfast "has probably broken more criminal justice stories than any TX reporter, but stays under the radar. Fascinating guy."

Maurice Chammah,The Marshall Project"unrestrained and uneducated"

John Bradley,Former Williamson County District Attorney, now former Attorney General of Palau

"our favorite blog"

- Texas District and County Attorneys Association Twitter feed"Scott Henson ... writes his terrific blog Grits for Breakfast from an outhouse in Texas."